Western Railroad Discussion > Over the Top on Donner Today

An EB passing through the Norden Shed this afternoon.
SR

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Very nice drone shots!

Is that a frozen lake above the sheds?

It was a broad shallow lake, at one time- Lake Van Norden. But it was drained years ago and is now a meadow.
SR

pt199 Wrote:
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> Very nice drone shots!
>
> Is that a frozen lake above the sheds?

As BoilingMan pointed out...

Basically a snow covered (wet) valley called Summit Valley. There was once a small dam along the Northwest corner that held back enough water allowing for an intermittent shallow lake at the far west end called Lake Van Norden. This area is also pretty much the beginning of the 65 mile long South Yuba River.

~ Mr. MRL



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/21 22:00 by MrMRL.

What about the Bear River??

Are the 'arms' on the snow shed for storing MOW/snow removal equipment?

BigDave Wrote:
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> Are the 'arms' on the snow shed for storing
> MOW/snow removal equipment?


Now: Sometimes, yeah.
Then: There was a covered turntable in the foreground. The center finger was the lead to the table. The finger on the right was the #1 Track to the original (CPRR) summit, now abandoned and pulled. You can still plainly see that ROW in the 2nd photo.
SR

Posted from iPhone

Oh man, this is good stuff. A really great representation of the current state of Norden and it helps put all of the older photographs together. 

Nice shots!

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> BigDave Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Are the 'arms' on the snow shed for storing
> > MOW/snow removal equipment?
>
>
> Now: Sometimes, yeah.
> Then: There was a covered turntable in the
> foreground. The center finger was the lead to the
> table. The finger on the right was the #1 Track
> to the original (CPRR) summit, now abandoned and
> pulled. You can still plainly see that ROW in the
> 2nd photo.
> SR
>
> Posted from iPhone

I did get one ride over the summit on the #1 track aboard Amtrak 6 many years ago.  Very enjoyable.

I assume that the snowsheds at this location are sited due to a history of avalanches from the hillside on the south side of the tracks?

No, there's no avalanche threat here. 
The reason for the placement is that Norden is were the 1 and 2 Tracks diverged.   Track 1 went up and over the Summit.  When it was the only (as CPRR built it) line the turntable etc was up there.  Later, when the #2 track was added, it went through Tunnel 41 and emerged on the West slope at and elevation below the original Summit.  The new line kept climbing til it met the original line here at Norden.  Norden then got the turntable etc and became the operational Summit, even though it technically wasn't the highest elevation on the SP's Donner crossing.  Then, and still today, the sheds at Norden protect the crossovers from winter snow.
SR

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> It was a broad shallow lake, at one time- Lake Van
> Norden. But it was drained years ago and is now a
> meadow.
> SR

The dam was owned by PG&E and Lake Van Norden provided a little over 5000 ac-ft of storage for PG&E's Drum hydroelectric system.  In the early 1970's PG&E was looking into raising the dam to provide additional storage but during that review they discovered that the foundation was very weak and raising the dam could not be economically justified.  Instead of raising the dam, they decided to abandon the dam entirely by breaching it to allow the water to flow unimpeded.

I think I went snowshoeing on that "lake" (meadow) ...

My favorite is Pic 2...